GEC's Layout Progress

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I have been looking this thread over for a while. I am amazed at your work. I am not a big fan of electric in real life. I like to hear the rumble of a diesel laboring. I think everyone here knows I am a little partial to big steam. But I remember oh probably 20 years ago. The first time I went on an open house tour, there was a guy in Delaware city,De. who had a really nice layout with catenary ( forgive spelling ) and I fell in love with it. I was fascinated with the detail. He also had a marine terminal with an aircraft carrier tied off that was supposedly to scale. He told me it was going to be all torn down in a few months as he was moving. Now there is another one just a few miles from me. This guy bought the layout from somebody and he has had nothing but trouble with it from day one. I guess I said all of that to say this. From modeling point of view I love it and maybe a little envious.

Thanks! Also, your spelling is right . Its a shame that guy was tearing it all down, but i guess such is the eventual fate of all model railroads. It would be neat to see this layout the guy is having trouble with, maybe i know how to get that catenary working. Do you know what kind of stuff he is trying to run, or what the exact trouble is? some pieces, like the Acela Express and the HHP8s from bachmann have trouble with catenary wire because their pantograph shoes are flat metal, and they snag imperfections very easily.


Actually, to be honest, this layout has been troubling me lately. I'm very proud of what i accomplished so far, but even from the start it was to small for me. The layout as shown in the book has a small geep and SW running the whole thing, using mostly 40' cars. While my GP15 and similar engines are certainly the right size, the more modern equipment i run is longer and it starts to add up. Even running passenger trains as small RDC/ EMU runs just doesn't seem to fit all that well. It looks fine in pictures, but its not all that fun to run anymore.

That, and i built this layout during my freshman year of high school, and so far i've had to replace or modify over 60% of the layout just so that it will run (and inevitably, i have to weed out the bugs all over again every time, and repaint all the track, which i still haven't done).

I feel like if I'm going to rip up the old, bad sectional track (some of which is steel and brass!, i should just change the whole thing. I have ideas on how to expand the layout and reconfigure areas to make more sense, but i have no idea how much longer I'll have this layout around, since as far as layouts go, there is a good chance I'll be moving out in the next few years, and i have no idea if the layout will be able to follow or if I'll be able to come back and work on it. I'll probably complete it enough to look nice, but as far as electrifying goes, I'm starting to think i should just stick to building modules to get the experience, and then maybe later i can incorporate them into something bigger.

There is a good chance I'll probably continue to build on my current layout (even the catenary), but i guess my enthusiasm for this particular layout has waned.